Another weird case is the Highgate Vampire in London. Dead animals such as cats and foxes with blood drained found in the cemetery grounds. Although some say it was Satanists conducting rituals.

Claims a body was found with its throat torn out, and the Police tried to hush down these claims.

There's even some pics of the alleged head vampire in his coffin

(Left): Discovery of the vampire tomb in 1970. (Right): The exorcised remains prior to cremation in 1974.

“We would like to exorcise the vampire by the traditional and approved manner ~ drive a stake through its heart with one blow just after dawn …, chop off the head with a gravedigger’s shovel, and burn what remains.”

Rumours began that Highgate was haunted, not by an ordinary ghost, but by the spirit of a malevolent vampire. One night in 1963, two teenage girls walked along Swain's Lane, adjacent to the cemetery. Upon passing the north gate, they claimed to have been terrified by the sight of bodies or spirits rising from graves.

Just weeks later, also in Swain's Lane, a couple spotted a hideous phantom, with a face of unspeakable evil. It hovered just beyond the cemetery railings. They were frozen to the spot in sheer horror, as it glared back at them. Several other witnesses reported the same entity hovering along the path and amongst the gravestones, before it disappeared into the darkness. Some of these witnesses contacted the local paper. Soon afterwards, animal carcasses, drained of blood, began to appear in the cemetery itself.

The spring of 1922 heralded the first vampire flap. Incredibly, several terrified witnesses claimed they saw a massive, black, bat-like entity with a two metre wingspan, flying around West Drayton Church. It was an April night, illuminated by a full moon. The entity plunged down into the churchyard, and meandered around the tombs. Two policemen arrived and gave chase. To their horror, the creature emitted a spine-chilling shriek, just before it flapped its wings, and zoomed skywards. An old man at the scene claimed to have seen the same entity a quarter of a century prior to this incident, back in the 1890's. He insisted it was the spirit of a vampire who had killed a woman in Harmondsworth, and then drunk her blood. His tale was understandably dismissed.

At approximately 6 am on 16 April, 1922, a clerk on his way to his office in the West End, felt some unseen entity grab him as he turned into Coventry Street. Worst still, something pierced his neck and drew blood. The clerk fainted and fell to the ground. He was taken to Charing Cross Hospital, where surgeons insisted he had been stabbed with a thin tubular object. But the patient was adamant no other person had been close enough to do such a thing.

Amazingly, a second victim arrived at Charing Cross, just two and a half hours later, with serious neck wounds. He had been attacked by an unseen assailant, in exactly the same way, at the same spot as the first victim. In the evening a third victim arrived. Police confirmed that this victim had also been subjected to an identical attack, at the very same spot, as the first two. Rumours were rife of a vampire on the loose in London.

When questioned by reporters, the police admitted they had made no advancement in their investigations. They also refused to comment on suggestions that the attacker was a vampire. The rumour mill went into overdrive, when it was declared that the police had hired a professional vampire hunter, who had subsequently captured and killed the Coventry Street vampire. A policeman claimed that the dead vampire had been laid to rest in one of Highgate Cemetery's deepest, darkest vaults, with a wooden stake through its heart. Despite the outlandish and implausible nature of this tale, by coincidence, London's next vampire scare focused on Highgate Cemetery itself.

Built in 1839, the Victorians regarded Highgate Cemetery as a highly fashionable burial place. Its numerous large and elaborate tombs and monuments are a testament to this. The cemetery was initially maintained to a very high standard, looking more like a public park than a graveyard. Sadly, by the 1960's, the cemetery had deteriorated into an overgrown, decaying and ominous place.

As rumours of spectres abounded, the decaying and abandoned Highgate cemetery became a magnet for vandals and occultists. Late in 1969, a group of occultists descended on the cemetery, and broke into a tomb. They performed a Voodoo ceremony, in the hope of raising the spirit of the corpse within. Local legend insists that the occultists got much more than they had hoped for, when an eight foot tall, black-clad entity emerged from the catacombs and chased them. The unlucky sorcerers escaped by scaling the railings, with one of them insisting he saw a long, bony arm reaching out from the railings, as he glanced back along Swain's Lane.

In January 1970, a motorist drove along Swain's Lane, close to the cemetery gate. His car engine started to sputter, so he stopped, got out, and lifted the hood up. To his horror, he noticed he was being spied on through the cemetery gates, by an unnaturally tall, spectral figure. The motorist was so terrified, he ran off and abandoned his car, leaving it with the hood still up.

In 1971 a young girl claimed the vampire attacked her in the lane alongside the cemetery, in the early hours of the morning. She said she was hurled to the ground by a "tall black figure with a deathly white face". Luckily for her, a passing motorist stopped to help her, and the vampire simply vanished into thin air when the car's headlights hit it. The good Samaritan took her to the police station, where officers noted her genuinely shocked state of mind, as well as some abrasions on her arms and legs. The police combed the area but found nothing. They were, however, somewhat puzzled by the fact that both witnesses had reported the assailant's sudden disappearance. The spot where the entity vanished, was lined on both sides, by four metre high walls.

In another account of the vampire's appearance, a man claimed to he was hypnotized by the entity in the cemetery. He had ventured in there one evening out of curiosity. Dusk descended quickly, so the man decided it was time to leave, but unfortunately got lost in the unfamiliar environment. He was in no way unnerved or superstitious, and simply set about seeking an exit. When he turned around, he found himself suddenly confronted by a horrendous sight - a tall, dark, spectral figure. He later described himself as having been "hypnotised with fear" and rooted to the spot for several minutes after the spectre's disappearance, in a strange state of paralysis.

Swain's Lane continued to be the scene of some very strange events. A dog walker returned to his car, parked in the lane, in 1974. To his horror and disgust, he discovered a newly disinterred corpse inside his car, even though the doors were locked, just as he had left them. This incident may well have been the work of Satanists, though, as many of them used the cemetery for their rituals at that particular time.

However, it seems the spectre of the Highgate Vampire has not yet been laid to rest. Even in recent years and months, people have reported a strange entity in and around the cemetery. The most recent reports tell once again of a 'tall black figure' lurking in Swain's Lane, just outside the cemetery. Earlier in 2007, a female motorist spotted a dark spectral figure about 7 feet tall, in the lane. She described it as having luminous eyes, and that it suddenly vanished through the cemetery wall.

Days later, and less than a mile away, a dog walker reported an encounter with the alleged vampire near an old Roman Settlement in Highgate Woods. He said the entity suddenly vanished into the ether, and he saw no further sign of it.

So what lies behind the tale of the Highgate Vampire? Is it an elaborate hoax? Are there pranksters at work? Could it be mass hysteria? Or is there really a supernatural entity of some sorts on the prowl? Whatever the answer, it's certainly an interesting story

its obvious that those occultists must have disturbed the tomb and awakened this entity, its been roaming ever since, i've been pass charing cross a few times when i was drunk out of my mind but i am too clever not to hang around where the living dead roam lol

its obvious that those occultists must have disturbed the tomb and awakened this entity, its been roaming ever since, i've been pass charing cross a few times when i was drunk out of my mind but i am too clever not to hang around where the living dead roam lol

The cemetery looks like a cool place to explore in day light, but very spooky at night, I bet.

Can't find a debunking of it. Maybe a left over prop from some horror movie. An actual dead person made to look like a vamp. It couldn't be real, could it?

Quote:

A modern vampire story

Many popular books on ghosts, like the book called "The Highgate Vampire", mention a vampire which purportedly haunted Highgate Cemetery in the early 1970s. The growth of its reputation, which can be traced through contemporary media reports and subsequent books by two participants, Seán Manchester and David Farrant, is an example of modern legend-building. The most academic account is given by a folklore scholar, Professor Bill Ellis, in the journal Folklore.[1] He writes from the viewpoint of sociological legend study; this concerns public perceptions of a real or purported event, and how these are shaped into a narrative by processes of rumour, selection, exaggeration and stereotyping.

Other narratives which treat these purported happenings as fact are available in the books and websites of Seán Manchester and David Farrant.
Initial publicity

The publicity was initiated by a group of young people interested in the occult who began roaming the overgrown and dilapidated cemetery in the late 1960s, a time when it was being much vandalised by intruders.[2] On 21 December 1969 one of their members, David Farrant, spent the night there, according to his account written in 1991. In a letter to the Hampstead and Highgate Express on 6 February 1970, he wrote that when passing the cemetery on 24 December 1969 he had glimpsed "a grey figure", which he considered to be supernatural, and asked if others had seen anything similar. On the 13th, several people replied, describing a variety of ghosts said to haunt the cemetery or the adjoining Swains Lane. These ghosts were described as a tall man in a hat, a spectral cyclist, a woman in white, a face glaring through the bars of a gate, a figure wading into a pond, a pale gliding form, bells ringing, and voices calling.[3] Hardly two correspondents gave the same story.
The vampire theory

A second local man, Seán Manchester, was just as keen as Farrant to identify and eliminate what he and Farrant believed was a supernatural entity in the cemetery. The Hampstead and Highgate Express reported him on 27 February 1970 as saying that he believed that 'a King Vampire of the Undead', a medieval nobleman who had practised black magic in medieval Wallachia (Romania), had been brought to England in a coffin in the early eighteenth century, by followers who bought a house for him in the West End. He was buried on the site that later became Highgate Cemetery, and Manchester claimed that modern Satanists had roused him. He said the right thing to do would be to stake the vampire's body, and then behead and burn it, but this would nowadays be illegal. The paper headlined this: 'Does a Vampyr walk in Highgate?'

Manchester later claimed, however,[4] that the reference to 'a King Vampire from Wallachia' was a journalistic embellishment. Nevertheless, the 1985 edition of his book also speaks of an unnamed nobleman's body brought to Highgate in a coffin from somewhere in Europe.

In his interview of 27 February, Manchester offered no evidence in support of his theory. The following week, on 6 March, the same paper reported David Farrant as saying he had seen dead foxes in the cemetery, 'and the odd thing was there was no outward sign of how they died.' When told of this, Manchester said it seemed to complement his theory.[5] In later writings, both men reported seeing other dead foxes with throat wounds and drained of blood.[6]

Farrant was more hesitant in identifying the phenomenon he had seen. In some interviews he called it simply a ghost or spectre, sometimes he agreed that it might be vampiric. It is the 'vampire' label which has stuck.[7]
The Mass Vampire Hunt of March 1970

The ensuing publicity was enhanced by a growing rivalry between Farrant and Manchester, each claiming that he could and would expel or destroy the spectre. Manchester declared to his associates that he would hold an 'official' vampire hunt on Friday 13 March—such Fridays are always ominous dates in British and North American superstition (Friday the Thirteenth), and are frequently chosen for items on occult matters in the media.[8] ITV then set up interviews with both Manchester and Farrant, and with others who claimed to have seen supernatural figures in the cemetery. These were broadcast on ITV early on the evening of the 13th; within two hours a mob of 'hunters' from all over London and beyond swarmed over gates and walls into the locked cemetery, despite police efforts to control them.[9]
Manchester's exorcism claims

In later years, Manchester wrote his own account of his doings that night (The Highgate Vampire 1985; 2nd rev. ed. 1991). According to his narrative, he and some companions entered the cemetery, unobserved by the police, via the damaged railings of an adjoining churchyard, and tried to open the door of one particular catacomb to which a psychic sleepwalking girl had previously led him; but try as they might, it would not budge an inch. Failing in this, they climbed down on a rope through an existing hole in its roof, finding empty coffins into which they put garlic, and sprinkling holy water around.[10]

Some months later, on 1 August 1970 (Lammas Day), the charred and headless remains of a woman's body were found not far from the catacomb. The police suspected that it had been used in black magic. Soon after this incident, there was a noticeable surge in both Farrant's and Manchester's activities. Farrant was found by police in the churchyard beside Highgate Cemetery one night in August, carrying a crucifix and a wooden stake. He was arrested, but when the case came to court it was dismissed.[11]

A few days later Manchester returned to Highgate Cemetery, but in the daytime, when visits are allowed. Again, we must depend on his own published book for an account of his actions, since neither press nor police were present. He claims that this time he and his companions did succeed in forcing open, inch by inch, the heavy and rusty iron doors of a family vault (indicated by his female psychic helper). He lifted the massive lid off one coffin, believing it to have been mysteriously transferred there from the previous catacomb. He was about to drive a stake through the body it contained when a companion persuaded him to desist. Reluctantly, he shut the coffin, put garlic and incense in the vault, and came out from it.[12]

A later chapter of Manchester's book claims that three years afterwards he discovered a vampiric corpse (he implies that it was the same one) in the cellar of an empty house in the Highgate/Hornsey area, and staked and burned it.[13]

Manchester's story is full of melodramatic details mirroring the Dracula mythos: the sleepwalking girl; the vampire transported to England in a coffin; a coffined corpse 'gorged and stinking with the life-blood of others', with fangs and burning eyes; his own role as a Van Helsing figure. If he did indeed act as he describes, it can be regarded as a good example of what folklorists (following terminology established by Linda Degh) now call 'ostension' and legend tripping. This means the real-life imitation of elements from a well-known tale, often involving role-playing, and sometimes leading to ritual acts of vandalism and desecration.
Aftermath

There was more publicity about Farrant and Manchester when rumours spread that they would meet in a 'magicians' duel' on Parliament Hill on Friday 13 April 1973, which never came off.[14] Farrant was jailed in 1974 for damaging memorials and interfering with dead remains in Highgate Cemetery—vandalism and desecration which he insisted had been caused by Satanists, not him.[15] Both episodes kept memories of the Highgate affair vivid. In 1975 Manchester wrote a chapter about it in a book edited by Peter Underwood, a well-known popular writer on ghost lore. The Highgate Vampire is now regularly featured in books and internet sites on occult subjects.

The feud between Manchester and Farrant remains vigorous to this day; each claims to be a competent exorcist and researcher of the paranormal; each pours scorn on the other's alleged expertise. They continue to investigate supposed supernatural phenomena, and have both written and spoken repeatedly about the Highgate events, in every medium available, each stressing his own role to the exclusion of the other.

In her book, Blood Lust: Conversations with Real Vampires, published by HarperCollins in 1991, author Carol Page describes her lengthy interview with Sean Manchester, further questioning his credibility and describes his self-proclarimed activities as "the real evil in Highgate Cemetery."
Film

According to author Bill Ellis, the Hammer Horror film Dracula AD 1972, starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, was inspired by the Highgate Vampire.[16]

I also write two blogs on the case, both called Did a wampyr walk in Highgate? One's on Blogger, the other's on Wordpress. Different content in both.

Anyway, now that's out of the way, the picture has been debunked before. An anonymous source tipped off Don Ecker, who included the following in his report on the case:

Quote:

Well David [Farrant] has maintained all along that it's Manchester himself under the make up, but he didn't know how the effect was created. This new witness explained that when he had asked Manchester back in the 70's with a lot of praise for the effect, Manchester explained how he did it.
Now it's important that you realize that Manchester had a photographic studio at the time; something he brags about given the chance and a knowledge of photography.

The film is basically time lapse photography played in reverse.
Manchester had a watery flour mixture on his face and a heater & fan set up nearby.
The heat source melted the mixture and the fan blew it off of his face.
Once the time lapse photography was finished, the effect was played in reverse.

As the frame rate was so stilted, you wouldn't be able to see the blow off effect but simply a very basic face morph.

It is a set a 3 pictures from his home movie, that made their way into his book and on his own website.
3 very grainy pictures from someone who is supposed to be a professional photographer. The reason that they are so small, is that blowing up a cine film still, would leave too many artifacts in frame that would give the game away as to their origin.

Anthony Hogg's principal blog was disabled by WordPress for repeated offences that included defamation and illegally infringing Bishop Seán Manchester's lawfully owned copyright material. Such violations occured on multiple occasions over a number of years. He has now turned to other services to continue his trolling. On one of his alternate blogs (http://www.parafort.com/dawwih/) he uploaded most of what was on his suspended WordPress blog, minus the infringed images which he could not access. That did not stop him uploading freshly stolen images. Hogg deviously registered this new blog in the name of UK resident Trystan Lewis Swale, an atheist who likes to attack those who hold religious and particularly supernatural beliefs. Swale has conspired with an infamous figure convicted of satanic crimes to try to discredit Bishop Seán Manchester on his hostile podcasts. He continues to this day to post extremely abusive and derogatory remarks about the Bishop on Facebook and elsewhere. Anthony Hogg (who has never been to the UK) arranged to have his blog registered using a British-based Server (UK Web Solutions Direct) in the name of Trystan Swale of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Swale describes himself as a "paranormal and Fortean investigator," but in reality is a hardened sceptic who dismisses the paranormal out-of-hand and derides anyone who does not. This replacement blog lasted a matter of days due to Hogg and Swale refusing to remove two stolen images of Bishop Manchester (taken long before either of them were born) and being unable to prove, as they had falsely claimed, that the pictures were their own copyright.

Soon after the replacement blog was disabled, Trystan Swale posted the following comment on Facebook:

"Some of you may notice that the DAWWIH archive will be disappearing soon, if it hasn't already gone. A Mr [sic] Manchester has slapped a DMCA notice on me. My web host has acted upon this without proof of any copyright ownership from Manchester. This is despite DMCA notices not having any binding legality in the UK and despite dispute over the legal status of the content concerned. My hosts have advised they will act upon Manchester's claim, albeit in the absence of any evidence supporting him. I was told that regardless of my legal position I will be required to demonstrate that Manchester is not the copyright holder. Consequently I am in the process of switching hosts."
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The proof of Bishop Manchester's ownership exists in the form of his possession of the 35mm negatives and the fact that when these two pictures were published in the 1970s they were shown to be his exclusive copyright. There is also the small matter of neither Trystan Swale or Anthony Hogg having been born when the pictures in question were taken. Swale speaks as if there is no copyright law in the United Kingdom, There is, of course, but what was glaringly obvious to his Web Host and Server is that he did not own copyright of what was in dispute and had placed alongside the photographs misleading material, ie the words "Black Magic" emblazoned in letters as big as the pictures themselves, plus further images of a man convicted of satanic crimes at Highgate Cemetery in 1974. One of these images was used as evidence to convict him. The inference is clear, and such juxtaposing is a familar strategy of these two antagonistic stalkers of Bishop Seán Manchester.

Trystan Swale and Anthony Hogg somehow feel they have the right to steal photographs exclusively owned by Bishop Seán Manchester and illegally publish them to incite hatred using false and derogatory attributions. And if the Bishop dares to recover his own property by issuing a legal take-down notice these two malcontents consider it to be "harassment." Such is the behaviour of mindless trolls who are obsessed with someone they do not know, have never met and have never spoken to.

Anthony Hogg has adopted a variety of pseudonyms in the past, including The Inquisitive One, The Overseer, Amateur Vampirolgist and tnuocalucard ("Count Dracula" spelt backwards). These days he is arrogant enough to use his real name, but he goes to considerable lengths to protect his exact whereabouts to prevent prosecution for stalking, harassment and inciting hatred against a public figure. Hogg has gone so far as to publish a UK address in full (offered specifically for people wanting to receive signed and dedicated copies of the Bishop's books). The excuse given is that he found it on the internet. His dissemination of the address was not an act of benevolence, however, because it appeared in the context of a stream of vitriol and malicious allegations against the person with whom the address is associated.

A typical example of the exceptionally offensive manner in which the self-styled "Baptist" Hogg hypocritically and abusively refers to Bishop Seán Manchester comes from his recently disabled blog:
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"I'm not going to disclose the identity of this potty prelate, wanker, total cock and blatant hypocrite. On an unrelated note, in the lead up to my blog's closure, I was subjected to repeated DMCA takedown notices issued by Sean Manchester."

Unsurprisingly, the blog on which Anthony Hogg posted the foul-mouthed comments was suspended. Within days he had transferred this profanity, word for word, to yet another blog where it still remains.

Bishop Seán Manchester only once commented on Hogg when he opined on Friday, 13 April 2012:

"Anthony Hogg (Melbourne, Australia), approximately 30 years of age, unmarried, not in a relationship, liberal, modernist, claims to be a Christian (Baptist) but evinces extremely unChristian behaviour, eg profanity (I have been referred to as 'a fuckin' lowlife' by him). There is not a day that passes where Anthony Hogg is not trolling and posting harassing comments about me somewhere on the internet. This self-proclaimed Christian's cyber-friends are either immersed in witchcraft and the occult, or profess to be atheists. Constantly critical of me because I am a traditional Christian bishop, Anthony Hogg himself remains totally anonymous — always wearing a demonic mask to cover his face and identity."

"Hoggwatch" was initially set up to monitor this troll's libellous and malicious allegations about Bishop Seán Manchester in order to amass evidence with view to aiding an eventual prosecution. However, it came to be realised by a growing number of people that Hogg is suffering from Asperger Syndrome which is characterised by qualitative impairment in social interaction, by stereotyped and restricted patterns of behaviour, activities and interests; and by an intense preoccupation with a narrow subject, plus one-sided verbosity. Consequently, Bishop Seán Manchester has requested that Anthony Hogg henceforward be ignored and not provided with any stimuli which might further trigger his ailment.

I don't know in what form vampires really exist(ed), but I know that
99% of all myths and legends, are based on reality.

The myths are based on the fears surrounding the thing.

In terms of the vampire stuff, there is alot of truths in it. Hollywood know alot more about that stuff than they let on, but they sensationalise it to keep the masses fears going, plus to ridicule the idea. While those behind the scenes probably see the masses as dumb.

Basically, it's just two attention whores who decided to role-play as Van Helsing.

Those "pictures" look incredibly fake, by the way. They look like movie props.

Bishop Seán Manchester has not given a print media interview for decades and it has been some time since he gave his final interview on the case of the Highgate Vampire (delivered on The Conspiracy Show, Vision TV). He is a very private person who dislikes media attention despite receiving invitations to speak on radio and television most weeks of his life. How such a person can be referred to as an "attention whore" is difficult to imagine.

David Farrant claims that he first met Bishop Seán Manchester in “late 1967.” The bishop, meanwhile, is adamant that he first met David Farrant in "early 1970." Farrant conveniently slips all manner of unsubstantiated allegations into this three years discrepancy. For example, he has latterly claimed he was entertained with a screening of an 8mm horror movie made by and starring Bishop Seán Manchester, and that a papier mache vampire he claims appears in that alleged movie is what also appears in photographs of the corporeal shell of the exorcised vampire in the bishop's published account The Highgate Vampire (British Occult Society, 1985; Gothic Press, 1991) and in subsequent transmitted television programmes featuring images from that book.

Bishop Seán Manchester strenuously denies Farrant's allegation and invites anyone who saw such a movie as described by David Farrant to come forward and be identified. No such movie was ever made and Farrant is not someone the bishop would have considered entertaining in his home. Even when they did eventually become acquainted in early March 1970 due to Farrant's claims in a local newspaper, the bishop only visited Farrant at a coal bunker in Archway Road where Farrant was ensconced and later, following Farrant's imprisonment for issuing black magic death threats, tomb vandalism and grave desecration, an attic bedsitting room in Muswell Hill Road, London.

The pictures in question have in the past been greatly enlarged for transmission on television in the UK and the USA where the enlargements and their negatives were examined to the satisfaction of all concerned.

Chief among those who disseminated misinformation in the new century are Bill Ellis of the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research and Jacqueline Simpson of the Folklore Society. Ellis met Farrant. Simpson did not, but relied on Ellis as her source. Neither Ellis nor Simpson met Bishop Seán Manchester, but they did exchange correspondence. The bishop offered recorded interviews from the 1970s which include Farrant discussing his early claims on television and in private. Ellis showed no interest in this material, but I did forward the interviews on CD to Jacqueline Simpson who acknowledged their receipt. Jacqueline Simpson is the authoress of the article comprising the Wikipedia entry on the Highgate Vampire.

Chapter eight of Raising the Devil is titled “The Highgate Cemetery Vampire Hunt” and is based on what Ellis gleaned from David Farrant when Bill Ellis met him in July 1992, interpolated by Ellis’ own scepticism. The chapter began its life as an article published in 1993 by through Jacqueline Simpson of the Folklore Society based at University College London in the UK. The bishop's response was offered to University College London in the form of an academic paper. The Folkore Society was uninterested in the rebuttal, some of which would later be absorbed within the pages of The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook.

Jacqueline Simpson, a resident of Worthing, Sussex, was president of the Folklore Society from 1993 to 1996 and then its honorary secretary. She published exceptionally misleading and grossly inaccurate statements in The Lore of the Land, having placed reliance on her American colleague Bill Ellis whose flawed material in Raising the Devil is even more defamatory and damaging. Some of the press cuttings referred to in Ellis' book are wrongly attributed and what he has to say is incredibly biased. Ellis wrote the following response when Bishop Manchester brought to his attention irrefutable evidence - in the form of copies of original reports - of his many errors:

“... we agree that the contemporary press handling was often inaccurate, and that most subsequent discussions were even more distorted. ... Mr Farrant, since he brought the matter into the papers and was repeatedly arrested for his activities in and around Highgate, clearly was 'central to events' in this sense. Credible, I don't say: I give his explanations for what they're worth and expect that most readers would also recognize that a judge and jury found them unconvincing.”

Jacqueline Simpson’s terse response to the bishop's concern over her damaging errors being repeated in a pending second edition of The Lore of the Land appeared on the internet:

“Wording changed to 'young people' and 'young man'. Name of organisation dropped, Farrant referred to simply as a 'member' of 'a group of young people interested in the paranormal.' Words 'which the paper called' inserted. No reference now to who did the challenging. Instead, neutral phrasing in allusion to press reports: 'rumours spread that a magical duel ...' The other points are rejected, and no changes will be made there.”

This is how some “scholars” apparently operate. The paperback edition contained an incorrect date for a crucial newspaper article about the mysterious death of foxes even though she had cleared that up well in advance with the bishop. All reference to Bishop Manchester's episcopal standing, albeit not entirely accurate in the first edition, was completely expurgated in the second edition.

Factual accuracy suffers when a version like the one Bill Ellis put into circulation is then adopted by other scholars who, despite evidence thrust at them, stick to their agenda. Jacqueline Simpson is entirely responsible for the Wikipedia entry about the Highgate Vampire case. What she has written online reflects the catalogue of error identified at the link below. Those with an interest in the case often innocently provide a link to her Wikipedia article without realising just how misleading and factually inaccurate it really is.